Pride
by Mrs. HopeEstheim
Summary: Quistis was a proud woman. Seifer was a proud man - or was he? Seiftis. My first attempt; please be nice!


**This is my first attempt at a Final Fantasy fiction, though I've been a fan of the series since I was too young to even understand it. So please be nice, and don't expect **_**too**_** much. **

**I do not own Seifer Almasy and Quistis Trepe, no matter how much I wish I had that honor.**

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><p>Quistis Trepe was a proud woman.<p>

Pride, she always thought, was much more than just useless boasting about one's past deeds and accomplishments. Pride was a helping hand to those who lacked self-confidence—as long as one wasn't overly prideful. And Quistis, despite being a little prideful, was intelligent and modest and gentle and kind. She hadn't always been as she was now. In fact, when she had lost her Instructor's License, she began to lack even the confidence that was necessary in a successful SeeD; the journey with her comrades against various foes that culminated in a battle with Ultimecia that spanned Time and Space had helped her find herself once more. When she had been somewhat rejected by Squall—not that either of them would acknowledge it as such—her pride as a woman had been destroyed. She then decided that she didn't need a man to love her if she loved herself enough…but she knew, deep down, that she was lying to herself.

But she deserved the right to be just a little proud, didn't she?

Quistis had fought for the world as everyone knew it and had damn near _died_ in the process, and yet here she was. She was a survivor of the Time Compression. A hero—or, more accurately, a heroine; that's what a little orphan girl and her comrades, most of whom had been at the same orphanage as she, could accomplish. They had become so much more than she would have ever dreamed. And since they were heroes now, they had a right to be proud.

Part of her lack of confidence in herself as a woman came from that "rejection" that neither party really acknowledged as such, but the rest came from her own mind. Though she denied it, Quistis Trepe was rather pretty in a sort of sophisticated manner. Pretty and smart; what more could any man want in a woman? And yet, Quistis didn't let herself see it that way.

She was a proud woman, yes, but never about anything relating to being a woman.

Quistis was a proud SeeD, a proudly reinstated instructor, and a proud heroine, but perhaps she wasn't so proud a woman as she thought.

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><p>Seifer Almasy was a proud man.<p>

Pride, for Seifer, had always been there. It didn't matter that he repeatedly failed his exams, or that he was a bad egg—yes, he knew he was a bad egg, but that didn't stop him—his pride simply _was_. He was strong. He was one of only two gunblade wielders in the entire Garden, and dammit, he was good at it. But despite all the pride he flaunted, there were still weaknesses that he hid. Very few could tell that his pride was just a cover, an attempt to hide all of the flaws in his character that he knew he had but was loath to fix. Behind that pride, he knew he was cowardly, but he would never admit it out loud.

Seifer had to be confident. If he wasn't so confident or so badass, what would stop those who knew of his background as an orphan from mercilessly tormenting him—much as he'd done to that Zell Dincht during their childhood, though he was perhaps the only one who remembered it because _he_ didn't have a GF.

When he became the "Knight" to Sorceress Edea, he felt he had a reason for all that overflowing pride, at least on the outside. After a while, it all seemed superficial. It was just a show; he was a 'knight'—but weren't knights known for being chivalrous and fighting for what was right? After a while, Seifer didn't feel like he was in the right anymore. In fact, he _knew_ he was in the wrong, but by that time he was almost in too deep to back out.

The fact that the prideful, confident man could realize he was in the wrong was proof of his own intelligence and insight, but he couldn't bring himself to correct it. Seifer was lost and his confident outlook was just a façade to hide that fact.

Seifer Almasy was a proud man.

But really, he wasn't that proud at all.

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><p>She was reinstated as an instructor and he as a student; it was a decision that many strongly opposed and abhorred, but the fact that the heroes of the Sorceress War defended it dissuaded any attacks by the dissenters. It wasn't the reinstatement of Quistis Trepe as a teacher of young SeeDs that angered people, but the reenrollment of Seifer Almasy as a SeeD candidate. None of the protesters could see that he'd changed. Perhaps no one but Quistis and her comrades noticed it, but she noticed first. Only those who have been through such drastic changes notice it in others, and the blonde SeeD instructor certainly fit that criterion.<p>

Seifer exuded an air of confidence and an aura of calmness that he definitely didn't feel inside. In fact, sitting in the back of the class and lounging as he would had it been months earlier, he noticed that Quistis showed more nervousness than he did. And she _was_ nervous. She was back where she had been just before the whole war and the great journey she'd been a part of…and it frightened her. What if it had the same end? What if her license was revoked again?

"Calm down, Trepe," Seifer said in the most uncaring voice he could muster—but he really did care. When she looked at him with a small gasp, her eyes widening just a little because she hadn't realized he was in the room, he said, "You'll be just fine. The only problem with your teaching before was me."

The bespectacled woman blinked, astonished, but then frowned, her eyebrows furrowing just a little as she stood and made her way to where he sat.

"Don't you _dare_ act like this," she slapped a SeeD strategy guide on the edge of his desk. Her heart was fluttering strangely and she was afraid she might really get fired for fraternizing with a student now because they were alone in the classroom and there was still a half an hour to go before class started.

For his part, Seifer was surprised by her actions.

"Act like what?"

"Like _this_," she said, motioning at his relaxed position. "Like the _old_ you."

He hadn't been aware that she'd noticed his changes, but it was only natural. He'd noticed how she'd changed, so it was reasonable to assume that she'd noticed the same about him. And there was this odd feeling in his chest and he hated that it hadn't gone away like he'd hoped—because _yes_, he'd felt this before. His confidence and pride was a cover for that feeling just as it was a cover for hundreds of other little character flaws.

With a _thump_, he swung his booted feet off of the desk and onto the floor, leaning his elbow on his desk. Seifer also leaned closer to her, and as she was bending down to lecture him, their faces were inches apart.

"If I don't act like the _old_ me, how will I keep my reputation? How will you keep _yours_?"

Quistis blinked, confused, and then retorted, "I don't see how that matters. You shouldn't have to act like you're someone you're not."

"You took long enough to realize that," said Seifer with a small laugh. "But what you don't understand is that I've been acting like someone I'm not for years. I can't just drop it all on a whim or because you tell me to."

The blonde woman made a disgruntled sound deep in her throat and her countenance told him that she was annoyed with his apathetic responses and that she most definitely didn't agree with him.

"Why do you insist on being so superficial?"

"Why do you insist on being so demure?"

"Seifer, don't avoid my question—wait, _what_?" Quistis felt her face heating up rapidly and she finally, _finally_ noticed the proximity of her student's face. And she couldn't deny that her heart was fluttering like crazy anymore and she had hoped this had all gone away, but it hadn't and it wasn't going to help her keep her job if it went anywhere. But…she was in turmoil.

"I _said_," Seifer enunciated, "why are you so demure? Don't pretend you don't understand."

He didn't know why in the hell his voice had gone so soft or husky, but he liked the shiver it sent up Quistis's spine. Seifer wasn't sure why he was doing this—it could put her job in jeopardy if someone walked in, couldn't it? But…dammit, why hadn't he got over this? When he'd found Rinoa, he thought his thing for the sophisticated, elegant blonde instructor was over, done, finite…but apparently he'd thought wrong. That _thing_ for her was back with a vengeance.

"S-Seifer, stop it," she closed her eyes, standing up and getting away from him, breathing deeply to calm her racing heart.

His actions made her want to believe in love again—or at least believe in herself as a woman.

Seifer lounged back in his chair, propping his feet back up on the desk in the process.

"Relax, Quisty," he said teasingly, placing his hands behind his head as she spun around, flushing. "I won't do anything until after I make SeeD. That way you get to keep your job…and I have an incentive to be a good student."

The confident man didn't know what provoked him to wink, but yet again he liked the effect it had because Quistis Trepe, despite her sophisticated sort of beauty, still looked so much more adorable with that red all over her face…and he was the one that caused it. He felt a sense of pride swelling inside him that he hadn't felt for a long time, and he reveled in it.

Quistis, meanwhile, had been spluttering embarrassedly about his words. He gave her time to compose herself, and after about three minutes she was able to face him again, cheeks just faintly pink.

"You have to pass your exams first," she said with more conviction than she felt. Her heard was all aflutter, making her weak at the knees. "It doesn't matter whether it's the first try, or the second try…or the seventh time. You have to pass."

Seifer grinned widely, wolfishly.

"You got it."

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><p>It was hard to believe that one somewhat prideful person lacking in self-confidence and one exceedingly confident person who lacked enough pride in his true self could mesh so <em>perfectly<em>—but they did.

Quistis Trepe had a determination to make sure her students, even the worst of them, learned everything that they needed in order to pass; after all, Seifer's incentive could very well be incentive to her, too. The only man who seemed to notice her for _her_ was plenty of a prize; it was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or the light at the end of a tunnel. And even though Quistis was scared to accept it, the pride in her job didn't stop her from wanting that which she shouldn't want.

Seifer Almasy was perhaps even more determined than his beloved blonde instructor. He had never thrown himself into his studies as fully as he now did in anticipation of the culmination of his classwork and field exams. With an incentive such as Quistis hanging over his head, he'd strive to pass the exam on the first try since his reenrollment; Quistis deserved better than Seifer, he was sure, but he wouldn't give her any more reasons to find someone else. If he could pass this exam, he could be with her more quickly. And though his excitement was coursing through his veins with fervor he had never before experienced, his confidence was shaky in this endeavor but he wouldn't give up.

It didn't seem like the two could work so well together, but they _did_ and that was really all that mattered. And if it shocked everyone in Balamb Garden when, not even two weeks after Seifer passed his exam, he was spotted walking with Quistis slung over his shoulder, red in the face and protesting, it shocked them even more when the rumor was spread that the Trepes had spotted the two in a fierce lip-lock somewhere in the building.

When Quistis heard the rumors, she smiled softly and tucked her nose closer against Seifer's neck while the lovably hyper Selphie Tilmitt continued relating all of the juicy gossip that was spreading through Garden that was centered on the delinquent and the teacher. Seifer smiled at her action and let his chin rest on the top of her head.

The squeal that permeated the air and the flush that flooded her cheeks after he whispered, "What will they do when we get married?" was completely worth it.

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><p>And so the prideful mingled with the confident in a perfect mixture of pride-less confidence and unconfident pride and the duo that none ever expected to persist continued to thrive in the face of adversity.<p>

She was a proud woman that lacked confidence and he was a man without much pride although his confidence made him seem overly proud.

And that was all right by her and pretty damn right by him.

And that was all that counted.

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><p><strong>Well. It didn't turn out as I'd hoped it would, but I'm kind of proud of it. It's my first time writing like this. I think I got repetitive on the pride, no pride, confident, and unconfident parts…but those were the main points, so I thought it was all right, in the end.<strong>

**I'd appreciate some feedback if you favorite this, but please don't be too harsh! xD**

**And if I accidentally have a few names wrong, please kindly point them out! I'm afraid it's been a _long_ time since I've played this particular FF game. Thanks! :)**

**Thank you for reading!**


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